This $12 Amazon Find Doubled My Closet Space — No Decluttering Required!

I want to be one of those people with seven clothing items I can magically wear 109 ways, but I’m decidedly not. In reality, I’m a person who, upon finding a flattering maxi dress, promptly buys it in all the colors, twice in black. 

My husband is no different. He rotates his (considerable) collection of work shoes so they can “rest” between wears. We both swear the other has more footwear, but we haven’t done an official count. 

So, yes, our shared closet is stuffed. The obvious solution would be to donate some of the clothing items, and I’m generally a champion purger. The thing about our clothes, though, is that we actually wear everything we own. I don the lightweight raincoat for hiking, and the nicer raincoat for date night, and my heavier raincoat for waiting at the chilly school bus stop. (It rains a lot where we live.) 

This wouldn’t be an issue if our closet were the size of those walk-in beauties that can double as an office, but our house was built in the 1950s with the diminutive storage space to prove it. 

That’s why I was so excited to find these hanger extender clips from Amazon. They’re the sort of have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too solution I’d been dreaming of. With these little clips, I can double our closet space without donating a single item, because each hanger can now hold two items instead of one. 

The S-shaped plastic clips slide onto the hook of the hanger, creating a miniature hook to hold another hanger. In theory, you could add hangers all the way down, and some reviewers did that. I was satisfied with merely doubling my storage space, and I didn’t want the hassle of removing multiple hangers to get to the item I wanted. 

If you plan to use the hangers to build outfits, however, the multiple-hanger strategy works fabulously. Your top, sweater, pants, and even a bag with a slim strap can all be removed from the closet in one motion. This is also a great solution for infrequently worn items you still want to hang onto, like maternity clothing, ski bibs, or cocktail attire.

In my closet, I tried to pair items together that made sense — sweaters with sweaters, blouses with blouses, and matching sets together — but I wasn’t religious about it. It’s easy to see all of my clothes, even when they are stacked vertically, and it’s far less complicated to get dressed than when they were crammed tightly together.

Some reviewers complained about the hooks breaking when looped onto the hangers. I applied the clips to our entire wardrobe — including heavy coats — and the clips remain sturdy and unbroken. My guess is the reviewers’ hanger hooks were too thick for the clips, so check the size of your hangers to ensure they’re compatible. I own these hangers, and they work splendidly.

The clips even solved our shoe storage problem, a lovely and unexpected surprise. Thanks to the space cleared on the clothing rod, we were able to add a hanging shoe rack for all those Oxfords in need of rest. 

I’ll probably never have a capsule wardrobe, and that’s OK. I’ve found my own act of organizational wizardry. 

Buy: Mlici 70 Pack Connector Hooks for Hanger, $11.99